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Intake of folate, vitamins B6, B12 and methionine and risk of pancreatic cancer in a large population-based case–control study

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Abstract

Objective

Folate and other methyl-group nutrients may play a key role in pancreatic carcinogenesis through their effects on DNA integrity. We examined the association between pancreatic cancer and intake of folate, vitamins B6, B12 and methionine in a large population-based case–control study.

Methods

Risk factor data were collected during in-person interviews with 532 pancreatic cancer cases diagnosed in 1995–1999 and 1,701 frequency-matched controls in the San Francisco Bay Area. Dietary history and supplement use were obtained using a semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire developed at Harvard University. Adjusted unconditional logistic regression was used to compute odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) as estimates of the relative risk.

Results

Total folate intake was inversely associated with pancreatic cancer (5th vs. 1st quintile: OR = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.48–0.93, p trend = 0.04). Increased vitamin B12 from food was positively associated with pancreatic cancer although risk estimates for quintiles 3–5 were similar (5th vs. 1st quintile: OR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.3–2.6, p trend = 0.001). Intake of vitamin B6 or methionine was not associated with pancreatic cancer risk.

Conclusions

Our study provided some support for an inverse association between folate intake and pancreatic cancer risk. The increased pancreatic cancer risk with vitamin B12 intake from food warrants further investigation.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by the National Cancer Institute grants CA59706, CA108370, CA109767, CA89726 (E. A. Holly, PI) and by the Rombauer Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund. The collection of cancer incidence data for the UCSF study was supported by the California Department of Public Health as part of the statewide cancer reporting program mandated by the California Health and Safety Code Sect. 103885; the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program under contract N01-PC-35136 awarded to the Northern California Cancer Center; and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Program of Cancer Registries, under agreement #U55/CCR921930-02 awarded to the Public Health Institute. The ideas and opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s), and endorsement by the State of California, Department of Public Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or their Contractors and Subcontractors is not intended nor should be inferred.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cancer Epidemiology, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, 3333 California Street, Suite 280, San Francisco, CA, 94118-1944, USA

    Zhihong Gong, Elizabeth A. Holly & Paige M. Bracci

  2. Department of Health Research and Policy, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Elizabeth A. Holly

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  1. Zhihong Gong
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  2. Elizabeth A. Holly
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  3. Paige M. Bracci
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Correspondence to Paige M. Bracci.

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Gong, Z., Holly, E.A. & Bracci, P.M. Intake of folate, vitamins B6, B12 and methionine and risk of pancreatic cancer in a large population-based case–control study. Cancer Causes Control 20, 1317–1325 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-009-9352-9

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